• Vye said Truss, with its Molson-Coors connection, was a company of “beverage specialists, not beverage generalists,” as opposed to its principal competitor, the combined forces of Canopy and Constellation.
• US markets, where beverages have been legal for some time, have seen nothing like that market share for beverages.
• According to BDS Analytics, demand for beverages in 2018 in the California market (roughly the same size as Canada) was low, though beverages are growing in popularity year over year. Dry flower held 38% of Californian market share last year, concentrates held 33%, and ingestibles made up only 12% (that category was led by candy, tinctures, and chocolates, with beverages coming later).
• “Is it possible? Well, even leprechauns are possible; but I don’t see it,” said food-and-beverage consultant Brian Sterling, who noted beverages represented 1.1% of cannabis sales in the US in January and February.
  Globe and Mail

Quick Hits

1. On St-Jean Baptiste Day, Quebec’s “national” holiday, celebrants in Montreal were allowed to enjoy the city’s municipal celebrations with a joint in hand. In Quebec City, the Commission des champs de bataille nationaux (The Commission of National Battlefields) has prohibited use of cannabis on its land, including the Plains of Abraham, where the party is held. It isn’t just cannabis—they also banned alcohol, all liquids, cans and bottles, water-guns, studded clothing, balls of any kind, umbrellas, and musical instruments. That’s why people come to Montreal to have a good time.
   Journal de Montréal, TVA Nouvelles
2. In the frenzy of invoking closure to push through two controversial bills cutting immigration and banning those who wear religious symbols from a variety of jobs serving the public, Quebec’s CAQ government ran out of time to raise the age for cannabis consumption. As a result, adults between 18 and 21 will still be legally allowed to buy and consume cannabis over the summer until the National Assembly reconvenes in August.
   Montreal Gazette
3. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has established the National Cannabis Working Group with a variety of major LP and REC retail partners to “improve the sector’s competitiveness,” though with membership costing between $5,000 and $10,000, brand strategist Rachel Colic said small businesses would be kept out.
   MJ Biz Daily, Twitter

• Financial executive Norman Levine said, “Canopy will now be a Canadian company in name only. Decisions will be made by Constellation and they will name executives and eventually move the operating head office to the U.S. but leave Smiths Falls as the nominal head office.”
  Twitter
• Tributes to Linton were widespread from across the sector, but grower Travis Lane summed up the feelings many legacy growers share about Linton: “He helped build one of the first inevitable massive North American cannabis corps in a market vacuum [but] almost anyone could have done a better job of publicly representing cannabis. Drones, dispos, fentanyl contaminated weed, shit product, etc. He may have been great for shareholders, but I didn’t see him help otherwise.”
  Twitter
• During a Bloomberg interview about the firing, Linton wore a t-shirt advertising communications-networks company Martello Technologies, which he and Mitel-chairman Sir Terry Matthews took public on the TSX last fall, and of which he is co-chair. As a result, Martello’s stock spiked by 89%.
  Ottawa Business Journal, Financial Post
• Linton told Bloomberg he wants to make Martello “really crank.”
  Bloomberg
• Coming Monday in the WeedWeek newsletter, an exclusive interview with Kevin Murphy, CEO of Acreage Holdings, the U.S. company Canopy planned to acquire for US$3.4B when U.S. legal conditions allow.

Quick Hits

1. Marketwatch charted the beating short sellers employing questionable methods delivered to LP Cannabis One, which has sunk 83% since April thanks in part to “naked” short selling, which is legal in Canada but not in the US.
2. The Wildfire Collective, a collective of small-batch outdoor organic growers, soft-launched with a video on Canada Day.
   Twitter